agency interview

Being
logical at Leo’s
Leo Burnett UK has become an agency where creativity is underpinned by the latest
technology, giving it a good balance of magic and logic. group ceO andrew edwards tells
andy Knaggs how he has taken the agency in this direction

Running a successful ad agency is a question of

balance between creativity and business focus, on it,” Edwards
and while acknowledging the importance of rigour continues. “In the first
and accountability, Andrew Edwards, group chief place our business
executive officer for Leo Burnett in the UK, believes is about People, and
the division of emphasis needs to be more heavily when we’re talking
in favour of creativity and planning. about brands, what
This doesn’t mean that Edwards thumbs his lies behind that is
nose at the tenets of Magic and Logic, which people as well. A
call for close relationships and understanding brand also has to meet
between agencies and their client-side marketing a fundamental human
and procurement contacts; it’s more a reflection need, so our second P
of his appraisal of what clients really want to pay is Purpose; that a brand
for, and a tip of the hat towards the impact that must play a part in
technology has already made to Leo Burnett’s someone’s life. Third
working practices on the Logic side, including in a is participation: to be a
production department that is still highly valued. source of actions, not
Edwards assumed his current role towards the just words; and how
end of 2007, and has implemented considerable that delivers against
and ongoing internal change. He tells PMM: the purpose.
“Most agencies are 40% creative and planning “Lastly, Populism –
and 60% all other aspects, and I think it should we believe in it. Any
be the reverse. I would say that’s what we are working towards. brand has to be popular, and even a niche brand can have a populist
We’re not quite there yet, but we are at least 50/50, and maybe 55/45 approach to its advertising.”
towards creative and planning.” These fundamental beliefs run deep within all the briefings,
The group is formed from five constituents: Leo Burnett London, planning and templates that Leo Burnett works upon, and go

“
retail and promotions agency Arc, luxury and style agency Atelier, alongside continuing heavy
LeoSports a dedicated
sponsorship consultancy,
and experiential agency
Lime. Structurally,
Edwards has brought
them all closer together
– literally closer, that is,
with a single executive
management board,
if i can have all of my traffic and production
people, all of my account servicing people
and my studio facility, using the same
system, then all of a sudden i’ve got a
“ investment in planning
and creative. It’s
because Edwards has
a clear focus, not just
on what will make the
agency successful, but
also what, in terms of
systems and processes,
must also underpin
and all of the disparate fantastic backbone to the agency that winning creativity.
creative, planning and Edwards says:
other departments that guarantees timeliness, cost effectiveness “Clients want to pay
form an agency combined for the Magic, and
into just one of each, and quality of output. while they recognise
serving clients for the that they need to, they
entire group. don’t necessarily want to pay for the process of delivery. It’s an area
Aside from the structure of the agency group, Edwards has also of the business that’s under the microscope.”
looked to shape and clarify Leo Burnett’s ethos, based on its own What does underpin the creative and planning efforts at the
interpretation of the four Ps of marketing. agency, and will increasingly do so, is the technology and services of
“We have reinvented those four Ps, and we hang everything Adstream. While it’s an important asset for the production department

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in the first place, the technology is used as far more than simply a
delivery platform for advertising material. Edwards professes to be a
strong believer in the technology, having first used it while working
as MD of Leo Burnett in Sydney, Australia (Adstream originates
from that country), and it has given Leo Burnett UK a much-needed
robust structure for traffic and production staff to work within.
He goes on: “It is total campaign management, but what I love is
that Adstream takes it a stage further. I’m running a big agency and
if I can have all of my traffic and production people using the same
system, all of my account servicing people and my studio facility
using the same system, then all of a sudden I’ve got a fantastic
backbone to the agency that guarantees timeliness, cost effectiveness
and quality of output. It takes everything, acts as a delivery
mechanism, checks work to make sure we get it to the correct spec,
and acts as an asset management system so we have immediate
access, and can share assets with different groups of people. It’s a
complete solution.”
There is some peace of mind that comes with knowing that
a specialist company such as Adstream is keeping on top of its
technology, and developing it further, allowing the agency to get on
with investing in what it does best, and what its clients value it for
most of all – its creativity.
Edwards accepts that, in Magic and Logic terms, Leo Burnett
used to be among the majority of agencies that were not “on top of
their game”.
“We were one of those, but now we have it absolutely buttoned
down, and the results for us have been extremely positive. We
have gone from being a standard, big London agency to being a
very dynamic and interesting proposition, because we are an
agency with one management team across a broad array of
disciplines. Plus, our creative product is so much better than
it used to be because we have amalgamated our divisions under
one leader. We therefore have a bigger pool of creative talent to draw
from.
“On top of that, our external reputation is so much better as a
result of our creativity. All of our benchmarks are so much better
than they were in 2007/2008. The extension of that is that people
read about your product, you get on more new business lists, you
win more new business, margins go up, performance is better and
you get that fantastic cultural spirit.”
Production is seen as a critical backup to the creative and
planning functions, where great ideas can be enhanced. Not every
p38-39_LeoBurnett.indd 2
agency interview
agency can claim such a commitment to it, and for Edwards its too
easy to say that cuts within the production department will save
money. It leads to compromise and the loss of craft skills, he says; a
depletion in quality standards is rarely far behind.
Using Adstream helps the agency’s production staff to add to
their skills, allowing them to reinvent themselves as the agency
evolves – something that every member of the agency’s staff, not just
those in production, must be ready and equipped to do, Edwards
believes.
Adstream also has the potential to make the agency more
business-focused, on behalf of itself, and on behalf of clients that
insist on greater transparency. Everything is tracked, providing a
complete history of every job in the process. This might lead to a
scenario where, for example, a brief is taken, and several iterations
of a creative have to be produced before the client buys. With all of
these creative iterations stored in the system, it could be possible
for the agency to challenge the original brief, demonstrate that it
was problematic, and thereby establish a more efficient method of
working hand in hand with that client.
Under the scrutiny of procurement departments, the Adstream
technology can help to answer the key questions, but while
acknowledging this growing influence, Edwards adds that “buying
well is not just price driven”.
“It’s also about success,” he continues, “and that comes from a
partnership with an agency that’s on top of its game. It comes from
idea generation that’s proactive and offers a complete solution.
No agency has an easy time with procurement, but procurement
does have a difficult job to do. We are always audited by clients
and we always have a clean bill of health. We don’t receive any
commissions, so there can be no commissions hidden.
“If we have a detailed scope of work and we understand what
we need to do, we have shared our overhead rate, our staff costs,
and what our margin is - if we’ve done all that up front, the only
way to move it is to change the scope of work. If you start on that
premise, you will get empathy with procurement and there will be
more understanding.”
The future is therefore one of strengthened creative and planning
capability, allied to systems and processes that meet the demands
of clients, make the agency more efficient, and clear a pathway to
still better idea generation. Without articulating it as such, Edwards’
intention is clear: it will be a case of the Magic and the Logic
working in perfect tandem.
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